Bad smell from next door

[Mighty Ruler]

My daughter’s been complaining of a bad smell in her bathroom for a few weeks. The couple next door have been self isolating for a while but they’re back at work today and the smell didn’t start till they got in so it looks like it’s coming from them. It’s a sort of cabbagey drain smell. I pulled the bath panel off but couldn’t smell anything at the time. They did have rats in the back garden and I wondered if one of them had gone under the floorboards and died but the the smell would be there all the time. Any ideas?

[Cawdor118]

Blocked soil vent pipe?

[Walker570]

A dead rotting rat is pretty distinctive, but it could still be something other than a rat decomposing.  Are you in a semi detached.

[Mighty Ruler]

26 minutes ago, Cawdor118 said:

Blocked soil vent pipe?

I’ll look into that. Cheers

26 minutes ago, Walker570 said:

A dead rotting rat is pretty distinctive, but it could still be something other than a rat decomposing.  Are you in a semi detached.

They’re in blocks of six, the middle four having entrys on the ground floor to access the back garden so her bathroom is partly over the entry.

[Walker570]

Hmmmm  I will go with something dead and rotting, probably in the roof space.   Just on the morbid side of things you have seen your neighbours in the last few days I hope. In my past life I have worked as a Coroners Officer and been to some suspicious smells in my time.  The weather has just got warm as well.

[ditchman]

this could interesting...........maybe something.................or nothing 

[7daysinaweek]

47 minutes ago, Walker570 said:

Hmmmm  I will go with something dead and rotting, probably in the roof space.   Just on the morbid side of things you have seen your neighbours in the last few days I hope. In my past life I have worked as a Coroners Officer and been to some suspicious smells in my time.  The weather has just got warm as well.

What's your gut instinct Walker, under the patio or in the wall cavity? lol

[ditchman]

16 minutes ago, 7daysinaweek said:

What's your gut instinct Walker, under the patio or in the wall cavity? lol

it must have turned to soup and dribbled into the wall cavity..............if it was under the patio   then they must have hit a drain and cracked it and the smell is rising that way

in any case the bad thing is ....its going to cost a bob or two to put right......there should have taken more care digging near a drain.............

[7daysinaweek]

4 minutes ago, ditchman said:

it must have turned to soup and dribbled into the wall cavity..............if it was under the patio   then they must have hit a drain and cracked it and the smell is rising that way

in any case the bad thing is ....its going to cost a bob or two to put right......there should have taken more care digging near a drain.............

🤣

I have had a rat or two under the floorboards over the years. Phew what a pong!

I recall the worst smell I ever experienced and I have smelt some smells in my time. It was of a bag of prawns that had dropped out of a shopping bag in the back of my car and went under the front seat. It was high summer and the sealed frozen bag swelled over several days and burst like a exploding foul balloon. I cut the carpet out of the car and the stench was eye watering. It took weeks for that smell to go. There was no magic tree on the planet that could have shifted that odour completely. 🤢

[clay shooter]

maybe they both ear lots of sprouts. ??? Or related to La Petermaine...

[washerboy]

Could it be weed

Old guy next door smokes it a lot 

[ShootingEgg]

Dead rat would have you nearly throwing up, I had to rip out a kitchen for someone who had them dead in the walls, I have not smelt anything like it since. I'd check all waste drains outside for blockages, and ask neighbours if they can smell it? 

[bruno22rf]

A cabbaggy smell I think would indicate a sewer - check around the base of the toilet where the pipe joins the pan - we suffer occasionally in the mornings, the sewers dry out at night and some sort of gas is released and then in the morning when people "upstream" of us start using the Loo the gas is forced to find a way out.

[hodge911]

If its anything like my next door neighbour its marijuana 

It flaming stinks 

[bavarianbrit]

Are they named Crippin?

[Mighty Ruler]

1 hour ago, bruno22rf said:

A cabbaggy smell I think would indicate a sewer - check around the base of the toilet where the pipe joins the pan - we suffer occasionally in the mornings, the sewers dry out at night and some sort of gas is released and then in the morning when people "upstream" of us start using the Loo the gas is forced to find a way out.

Yeah, sewer gas seems most likely, but is it my daughter’s or her neighbour’s soil pipe? My son in law says he’s smelt it in next doors kitchen when they’ve had the back door open so that looks more likely. 
There’s no manhole in my daughter’s garden, as far as I know the neighbours haven’t got one either.

[oldypigeonpopper]

hello, has you Daughter made contact with the next door neighbours 

[Walker570]

11 hours ago, 7daysinaweek said:

What's your gut instinct Walker, under the patio or in the wall cavity? lol

Had them in all sorts of places.  The last one under the floor boards of the living room.  That was a suicide , chap shut himself through a trap door under a carpet and took an overdose.

More maggots there than in my local fishing store.    Rats I have had in wall cavities floor cavities, if they have been on the warfarin they seek water and shelter and one particular incident was in a holiday chalet we stayed at and as soon as I walked in I knew what was up. Distinctive.  Took the owner two hours to clear it out after taking all the cladding off the outside wall.

Vermin guy had been through the week before in the cattle sheds across the road.

Anyway sounds like they have found the problem.

[7daysinaweek]

1 minute ago, Walker570 said:

Had them in all sorts of places.  The last one under the floor boards of the living room.  That was a suicide , chap shut himself through a trap door under a carpet and took an overdose.

More maggots there than in my local fishing store.    Rats I have had in wall cavities floor cavities, if they have been on the warfarin they seek water and shelter and one particular incident was in a holiday chalet we stayed at and as soon as I walked in I knew what was up. Distinctive.  Took the owner two hours to clear it out after taking all the cladding off the outside wall.

Vermin guy had been through the week before in the cattle sheds across the road.

Anyway sounds like they have found the problem.

ooh not pleasant.

It sounds like you have experienced  your fair share of questionable aromas in your time. I recall here in Liverpool 20 odd years ago there was an older lady who lived in a very affluent area of the City suburbs. She had rang  the local bobbies about a  fragrant aroma that she said  was coming from the house next door but she did not know what it was. Long story short, the force watched the house and after some shifty comings and goings they raided it and found a large cannabis farm. They ran the news in the local rag.

Send in Mrs Miggins with her supersonic nose I say.

atb

7diaw

Apologies for derailing thread slightly. Glad they got it sorted, nothing more vexing than a unidentified smell.

[Walker570]

Just had about 30 bags of compost from a cannabis farm dumped up our lanes. One local had it loaded in quick time and his garden beds look superb. He's another waste not want not fanatic.

[Mighty Ruler]

5 hours ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

hello, has you Daughter made contact with the next door neighbours 

My son in law spoke to them, but they were a bit vague about whether there was any problem with the drains or not.

[oldypigeonpopper]

Just now, Mighty Ruler said:

My son in law spoke to them, but they were a bit vague about whether there was any problem with the drains or not.

hello, where in relation is the bad smell coming from adjacent the neighbour, are they solid walls ? does their bathroom adjoin yours, are they on the second floor of 6 and do top and bottom units connect to one pipe as in most building, have you checked the outside drain pipes, it is usual for a building of 6 units on top of each other to have 3 soil down pipes which may have separate manholes then on to the main sewer or 3 pipes into one manhole and on to mains sewer, not a pleasant job, 

[Jaymo]

She doesn’t have a teenage daughter who has snuck a ‘B.O’ stinky hormonal teenage boy under her bed!! 
They stink

[Mighty Ruler]

18 hours ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

hello, where in relation is the bad smell coming from adjacent the neighbour, are they solid walls ? does their bathroom adjoin yours, are they on the second floor of 6 and do top and bottom units connect to one pipe as in most building, have you checked the outside drain pipes, it is usual for a building of 6 units on top of each other to have 3 soil down pipes which may have separate manholes then on to the main sewer or 3 pipes into one manhole and on to mains sewer, not a pleasant job, 

The block of six has a semi on each end and the four middle houses are terraced. The second and third (the neighbour and my daughter) have an entry at ground level going straight through to the back garden. The neighbour’s bedroom is partly over the entry an the front of the house  and my daughters bathroom is over the entry at the back. So the dividing wall upstairs  is not a straight wall, it goes back to front, then left to right then back to front again. The front and rear walls are cavity, but I think the dividing walls are 9” solid. I can’t see a manhole anywhere, not in my daughters or the neighbours, from looking over the fence.

[JKD]

4 minutes ago, Mighty Ruler said:

The block of six has a semi on each end and the four middle houses are terraced. The second and third (the neighbour and my daughter) have an entry at ground level going straight through to the back garden. The neighbour’s bedroom is partly over the entry an the front of the house  and my daughters bathroom is over the entry at the back. So the dividing wall upstairs  is not a straight wall, it goes back to front, then left to right then back to front again. The front and rear walls are cavity, but I think the dividing walls are 9” solid. I can’t see a manhole anywhere, not in my daughters or the neighbours, from looking over the fence.

By that description, I'm assuming that your daughters bathroom party wall is above the neighbours kitchen wall ? If yes, is there an extract in the neighbours kitchen wall inside the walk through?

If, as you say, the external walls are of cavity construction, could there be foul air passing up that cavity and filtering through that way ?

TBH, it does sound like a drain issue, but you did say the 'smell' started again when the neighbours came home. If drains were the issue, surely the smell would be there constantly ?

Cooking smells would be more sporadic 🤔